Date: 10/8/26 2:13 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (08 Oct 2026) 10 Raptors
Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
To see hourly weather data and details of migrant raptors, look up this watch at hawkcount.org.
This is a new raptor migration site identified and designated in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch site, and the second hawk watch in Colorado.
To get to the site which is along Lookout Mountain Rd. in Golden, enter either Windy Saddle Park or Mount Zion into Google Maps on your favorite navigation app, or enter the coordinates 39.7368,-105.2454. From the parking lot ascend the stone steps to the watch site.
EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO THE HAWK WATCH TO ENJOY THE SPECTACLE OF RAPTOR MIGRATION, EVEN IF YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IDENTIFYING RAPTORS IN FLIGHT. We will help you to learn Raptor ID if you are interested.
See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 08, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:30:00
Observation end time: 12:30:00
Total observation time: 4 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
Jane Haddock from Lakewood saw our eBird reports, realize there was a new
hawk watch at Mount Zion, and came up for a while with binoculars. She said
she remembers me from Dinosaur Ridge when the Bird Conservancy of the
Rockies Managed it, and had done on a trip to Veracruz with HMANA with Phil
and Julie Brown.
Weather:
Denver was hazy, completely cloudless blue sky to begin with, but by the
12:00 p.m. MDT hour there was 50% cloud cover, cumulus clouds coming in
from the west and gradually covering overhead, Northeast and Southwest
giving me a good backdrop to look for migrant raptors. I scanned in all
directions and overhead was only able to find 1 CH there.
Denver's notorious Brown Haze was visible over the horizon and it took
until the 12:00 hour for it as well as the haziness over Denver to clear
up. Before it cleared up the immersion layer would reduce the height that
thermals could lift up to, so my question to myself was Since there are a
few migrants, is it because they sense that conditions are poor for
migration so are not flying, or whether they're flying too high for me to
be able to detect them with binoculars. Today I was able to feel that since
my attempts to find migrants against a good cloudy background did not yield
much, my conclusion is that the hawks were not flying in large numbers
today.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an RT by 9:30 a.m.. 2 adult GE migrated at 12:01
p.m.
The Soaring Forecast of the NWS predicted excellent lift at 18 ft/second
with thermals at 12,696 FT AGL by 11:45 a.m.
Non-migrant raptors: RT 6 including a dark morph juvenile we lastt saw in
September which together with another light move juvenile were checking out
2 adult migrant RT, TV 2.
Non-raptor Observations:
3 paragliders at 10:45 a.m. had no lift whatsoever, the 2 at 11:35 a.m. had
moderate lift and by 12:30 had excellent left going really high, so also
could the raptors, limited by the height of the cumulus clouds which would
in Golden Colorado be around 10,000 to 11,000 ft AGL, i.e. 3000 to 4000 ft
above the watch, at which height I should be able to see them especially
against good cumulus clouds.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S400372422
Predictions:
Increasing clouds, with a high near 84. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east
in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 17 mph.
The winds are aloft predicted by earth.nullschool.net are light from the
SW.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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